Ver. 1. And Rehoboam went to Shechem.] [See Trapp on “1Ki 12:1”] [See Trapp on “1Ki 12:2”] [See Trapp on “1Ki 12:3”]
Ver. 7. If thou be kind to this people.] “If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them.” (1 Kings 12:7) [See Trapp on “1Ki 12:7”]
Ver. 8. The young men…that stood before him.] Qui erant illi ab auribus, a Consilio, poculis.
Ver. 10. My little finger shall be thicker.] Or, Is thicker, q.d., My dignity, majesty, and might is greater than ever was my father’s. Perhaps he preferred himself before his father—as did also Henry, the eldest son of our King Henry II, who got not so much by his coronation as to have a name in the catalogue of the kings of England—because he was born of a king’s daughter, and so a better woman, in his esteem, than Bathsheba.
Ver. 13. And king Rehoboam forsook the counsel.]. Livy saith, Fatis urgentibus Rempublicam, omnia salutaria monita sperni; when a state is ripe for ruin, all wholesome counsels are fatally but foolishly slighted.
Ver. 16. So all Israel went to their tents.] Revolted from Rehoboam, as likewise, upon a like discontent, did the Saracens from Heraclius the Roman emperor, soon overrunning Syria, Egypt, Persia, and other flourishing kingdoms, now in the possession of the Turks. Paul. Aemyl.
Ver. 18. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram.] But all too late. “ Quid iuvat amisso claudere septa grege! ” The people are a most dangerous and heady water when once it is out.
Ver. 19. And Israel rebelled.] Their making Jeroboam king is added; (1 Kings 12:20) but this historian meddleth not with that usurper or his successors, unless it be by the by, as 2 Chronicles 11:1-4